Meet the new Threadless: Fast-growing T-shirt maker Ript Apparel

Ript Apparel began in a Chrysler en route from Chicago to Bettendorf, Iowa, in the summer of 2009.

Matt Ingleby, Paul Friemel and T.J. Mapes, friends since grade school, were making the three-hour trip home to visit their families and batting around ideas inspired by the rise of Groupon Inc. and other daily-deal sites.

"By the time we got there, we were like, 'We should do this,' " Mr. Ingleby recalls. "The following Monday was our first meeting."

The three men, 27 at the time, began meeting every Monday from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. to create Ript, a website that sells three T-shirt designs every 24 hours. Once the time expires at midnight each night, the design is sent to the site's graveyard, where customers can browse but longer buy. The site works with independent artists who retain the rights to their designs and receive a dollar for every $10 shirt sold. The artist's take per 24-hour sale ranges from hundreds to a few thousand dollars, according to Mr. Ingleby.

Five years later, Ript has grown to 17 employees and $3.2 million in 2013 revenue — a trajectory that helped it nab the 441st spot on Inc. magazine's latest list of the country's 5,000 fastest-growing businesses.

HINTS OF THREADLESS

Ript's business model might remind a lot of Chicagoans of another local T-shirt company that relies on artist designs: Threadless, which launched in 2001 and has gone on to make a reported $30 million in annual revenue, bolstered by deals with major brands including Gap and Bed Bath & Beyond.

But Threadless' future is uncertain, as the company laid of a third of its staff early this year, closed its Lakeview retail store and undertook a strategy shift.

Mr. Ingleby says Ript is different from Threadless in several ways. Most important, Threadless' sales don't have the same timed element as Ript's, which introduces a sense of urgency and encourages impulse purchases. Ript also collects money from customers before buying and printing the T-shirts. "We're a completely cash-flow-positive business," Mr. Ingleby said. Threadless buys artwork upfront, screens the shirts and stores them in warehouses before selling them.

Ript's frugal approach helped in the early days, as the company sold perhaps 50 shirts a day at the beginning of 2012. It didn't need a large amount of cash upfront to start operations, and all three founders kept their day jobs until 2011.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

Their respective professional expertise didn't hurt, either. Mr. Ingleby was a veteran of the corporate retail world after working as a planner at Office Max Inc. when it was based in Naperville."I knew how to crunch the numbers and figure out the pricing we needed to get from a screen printer," he said. Messrs. Mapes and Friemel had lots of design and Web design experience, including a stint for Mr. Friemel as Smashing Pumpkins' webmaster.

Ript prints its designs on ring-spun cotton tees by Tultex, a company based in Cincinnati that Mr. Ingleby says are similar to those by American Apparel. They're also cheaper, which allows Ript to keep its per-tee price at $10.

As Ript grew, the founders decided to bring printing and fulfillment duties in-house. When they started testing orders using outsourced printing and shipping, T-shirts took two weeks to arrive. Now the process takes two days, as everything happens at Ript's two-story Near West Side office and warehouse.

Going forward, Mr. Ingleby says the company is considering letting artists create their own online stores on Ript's site, which would allow the company to sell more non-T-shirt merchandise like posters that can be printed digitally on demand as orders come in.

But the company's devotion to independent design will remain.

"What makes us sustainable as a T-shirt company is that it's art," Mr. Ingleby said. Checking out the site "is a much more cultural part of people's day than just seeing what kind of deal they can get on something."